I am pulling my 22RE out of my 86 4Runner and I drained the fluid out of the Auto Tranny. When it came out it was BROWN like mud/Rusty. Should I Flush the Tanny or just put new fluid in it. I heard that if you flush it it will loosen up stuff and cause more problems later on it. The 4Runner has 238,530 Miles on it.

 

Did you drain the transfer case also? It has a drain plug too.

 

No just the tranny

 

If you are taking the motor out, go ahead and turn over the torque converter and let it drain, drain the transfer case too. while you have the cooler lines disconnected, blow compressed air through the cooler both ways. If you do all this you will have replaced almost all of the trans fluid. Only about a quart of the old stuff will still be there.

Transmission fluid oxidizes over time. If it was driving fine I wouldn't worry about flushing with a machine. IMHO that is a useless service that probably won't hurt anything but probably won't help either.

 

The bad part is thow i dont know how it was driven. I bought it for $200. So what is the best thing for me to do?

 

just drain and refill, drive, and see how it runs. maybe drain and refill a couple more times too gradually bring the fluid to a better condition and if it holds up fine you could probably get it flushed and change the filter.

 

Drain it all out, keep draining it every 500-1,000 miles if its brown. If it shows ant signs of problems drain and refill ith atf but add in lucas stop slip-that stuff works!

 

Usually I am no big fan of aftermarket "additives". A lot of the stuff on the parts store shelf only delays an overhaul and usually ends up causing more or worse problems.

That being said I am a huge fan of Lucas Automotive Products. Their oil stabilizer is an outstanding product and I have used their fuel system additives as well. I haven't used their transmission product, (we use friction modifiers and other trans additive products by Life Automotive and Lubeguard) but based upon my experience with their other products I would say it's worth a shot. I would stay away from any other aftermarket additives if I were you.

 

X2 on the Lucas

 

i agree

 

Sounds good I will do that when I get the motor back in. Thanks

 

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I had to rave a little.

Now I'm usually quite hesitant to use the "quick-fix" additives that plauge the auto parts store, but I just finished adding Lucas Oil's Stops Slip and wow.

It's irritating that it flows like molasses in winter, and just draining a little ATF is really messy, but there's a BIG difference in how the transmission shifts and even sounds. I figure if it gives me another 10k miles of good driving (170k on the original transmission) I'm happy. I know I'll have to rebuild it sometime in the not so distant future, but yay!.

thanks for reading,
Andy